


Happy Birthday

by greycoupon



Category: The X-Files
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-05
Updated: 2019-10-05
Packaged: 2020-11-24 00:49:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 756
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20898902
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greycoupon/pseuds/greycoupon
Summary: Fox Mulder never wanted to have another birthday party.





	Happy Birthday

**Author's Note:**

> Day 4 of Fictober. Written for the prompt "birthday party."

Fox Mulder hadn’t wanted a party for his 13th birthday. Sam was gone and his family was a mess. There didn’t seem to be much to celebrate. But his mother had actually come out of her room, where she spent all her time now “resting”, to suggest it. She seemed the most alive he’d seen her since it had happened when she was making plans. She was smiling and even though she was still doped up with tranquilizers, as she was constantly these days, for a minute Mulder could see his old mom. So he said okay. That was a mistake.

Mulder had become a social pariah at school. His friends had largely deserted him after Samantha’s abduction. He knew the gossip about him and his family ran rampant. Everyone knew he had been there when she had been abducted. There were a lot of theories, many of which blamed him. He just kept his head down and pretended to be oblivious.

His mother had insisted on sending out formal invitations which would have made him cringe even before his sister had been lost. But he humored her anyway. He invited his whole basketball team, his close friends and a couple of guys who had been nice to him since school started.

His father, who had been in Washington “on business” since immediately after Sam was abducted, came back for the party. His mother had insisted on having the event catered when he had told her they would be happy with burgers. By the day of the party no one had formally RSVPd. He told himself it wasn’t a big deal. He kept telling himself this as he waited and waited for the doorbell to ring. 

In the end, only two guys from the team and a kid from his math class whose name he didn’t know but whom the mean kids called “Booger” when they were pushing his head in the boys bathroom toilet, showed up. Their mothers were with them and stayed to watch. He understood. A little girl had been taken from this house. Who would let their kid there unaccompanied?

The party was a disaster as he had expected. No one liked the fancy food. His friends didn’t know how to talk to him and his attempts at engaging them in banal conversation about the latest movie they’d seen or how mad they were about the Red Sox choking this season was met with mumbled replies of one word answers.

The boys mothers sat on a settee in the corner and alternated between staring at them and whispering to each other. Bill Mulder spent the entire time downing one scotch after another, paying no attention to his son. Finally, he had drunkenly yelled at them for not eating the food he paid for and stormed off. His mother started crying and announced she was going to bed, leaving him all alone to deal with the party guests.

Young Mulder had pretended like absolutely nothing was wrong, when he wanted to sob and scream himself, and thanked everyone for coming before more or less pushing them out the door. The party disaster was the talk of the island for months.

Mulder had sworn to never have another birthday party after that and he didn’t for almost 30 years. He would have been content to go the rest of his life without one. But he had told Dana Scully this story one night in bed, not long into their relationship when she asked what he wanted to do for his birthday.

She hugged him and looked genuinely upset by the tale. So when she suggested he have a low key party for his 38th, he had agreed...with some conditions. No presents. No cake. No singing. He got to decide who to invite and it would be in his apartment.

So that’s how he ended up sitting in his living room with The Lone Gunmen and Chuck Burks eating pizza while Plan Nine From Outer Space played on TV in the background. Scully had cheated and brought him a cupcake with a lit candle on top. She had sung an especially off key version of ‘Happy Birthday’ which he grumbled about but secretly appreciated the payback. Later that night after a lovemaking session involving him smearing left over icing across her breasts and licking it off, he had sincerely told her it was the best birthday he ever had and nothing could top that.

It was also the last birthday party he ever had.


End file.
